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CHAPTER ONE**Los Angeles**
Angel awoke to the sound of his alarm clock beeping. It was 7:00am and it was time to get up and open the agency. He groaned, hit the off button and rolled back over to go back to sleep. However, that didn't happen. Sara had also woken up to the alarm clock and nudged him and pushed him until he got up. Sara worked in a restaurant as the head chef and she had to be up at 7am also. So there was no way that she was going to let Angel sleep in if she couldn't. Angel groaned again, looked at her, sighed and got out of bed. Sara and Emily had moved in with Angel a few months earlier and all were loving it. The hotel was closer to the high school Emily went to so she no longer had to take the bus to get there. Her mom would drop her off in the morning and she would get a ride home from a friend at the end of the day. Emily liked Angel and hoped that he would become her new dad some day.
Angel showered and got dressed and went downstairs where Sara and Emily were already dressed and ready to go for the day.
"Good morning." Angel said to the two women.
"Good morning." They answered back in unison.
"So, Emily, are you excited to give your speech today?" Angel asked her.
"I wouldn't say excited, but I am definitely ready for it. I mean, come on, a speech on how to make a cake. Not exactly the hardest thing to talk about." Emily said. Emily was taking a speech class in her high school and they had to give a speech on how to make, or do, something. So, she picked baking a cake. One of the things she enjoyed doing the most.
"Well, Emily, its time to go. I will see you after work Angel. Have a good day and I hope a case comes your way today." Sara walked over to Angel and gave him a kiss and a hug goodbye. Angel gave a wave to Emily as she walked out the door and smiled at them both as they left.
Angel hadn't had a case in a few weeks but the last one had been very big and had brought in a lot of money. Not like he was concerned about money. Due to his dealings in his "past life" he was financially set for the rest of his life. But, he still had to keep up pretenses. When Sara had asked how he bought a hotel, he had told her that they were practically giving away the land and the building because it was so old and run down. He had snatched the opportunity saying that he didn't want to see a part of LA's history be torn down by the city. She had believed him, of course, and there had been no questions about it since then.
As Angel sat alone in his office, he unlocked a drawer in his desk and pulled out a photo album that his new friends didn't even know existed. It was a set of pictures of the old gang. He stopped at a picture of Cordy and sighed. He missed her so much and hated himself every minute of every day for not telling her that he loved her. He missed all of his old friends but knew they probably wanted nothing to do with him. He never let his emotions show because he didn't want Sara to know about them and that particular part of his life. He figured that he was never going to be a vampire again, so why bother telling her about things like that. He was brought back to reality by the sound of his phone ringing. He put the album away, locked the door and answered the phone.
"You've reached Angel Investigations, how may I help you?" Angel answered.
"Angel, its me, Kate. I, uh, I think I need to come to the hotel right away. I have this new case that I was given just this morning and, its, well, its pretty disturbing Angel." Kate told Angel clearly upset and she even sounded a little irritated.
"Kate what's wrong? What's the case?" Angel asked trying to get some information out of her.
"Look, Angel, I am not going to tell you over the phone but its something you really need to see. And a case I really think you should work on with me." Kate said not giving a bit of information away to him.
Angel could tell that something was definitely not right and that this was something that had to be dealt with as soon as possible.
"Ok Kate. Come over and bring all the reports and photos you have. We will go over this and figure it out and catch the bad guy. As always." Angel told her.
"Well, Angel, that's reason for the importance of all of this. I already know who the killer is."
"Who?"
After a bit of a pause with the only sound being the sound of Kate's car being started and put in gear in the background, Kate answered him. "Angel, its Penn."
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